Packaging, Shipping, Refunds and Replacements - Share your Experiences!

[sax]

Anybody have experience with forbiddenplanet.com? I've ordered a book from then on tuesday and it still hasn't shipped. It says it's still in stock and the order status says it's ready to ship so it's quite strange it takes them this long.

From my experience, they tend to drag their feet a bit, but stuff always gets there.
I can vouch for their reliability.

[Balakin]

From my experience, they tend to drag their feet a bit, but stuff always gets there.
I can vouch for their reliability.

cool, good to "hear". thank you!

[Kandor Rising]

Ordered Avengers by Busiek & Co. omnibus from Total Books on the Amazon marketplace for $68....the first time the packaging was horrible and the book arrived damaged. I sent it back for a refund and found that instocktrades had gotten more in stock and waited too long to bite so the book went out of stock again. So I ordered from Total Books again chalking the previous experience up to bad luck and the new book arrived in the same deplorable condition. This time I am going to send it back and maybe ask if they can package it better to avoid this whole process. They have you take pictures of the item and converse through several emails before the process can begin. It's a pretty annoying process.

You will never get good service with the Amazon megasellers. They do so much volume, they don't care.

[lvizzz]

Anybody have experience with forbiddenplanet.com? I've ordered a book from then on tuesday and it still hasn't shipped. It says it's still in stock and the order status says it's ready to ship so it's quite strange it takes them this long.

Same here: they aren't fast but you WILL get your books, man. Great packaging as well.

[Balakin]

Same here: they aren't fast but you WILL get your books, man. Great packaging as well.

awesome. Hope they finally gonna dispatch it tomorrow.

[Dorktron]

So, I am done ordering books from Amazon. They packed 5 trades into a very large box with no bubble or plastic wrap and even left a half inch gap on the bottom of the box between the flaps for my trade to rub against. All of my corners are frayed and the printing has been taken off of most of the spines. The only reason I gave Amazon a chance is because IST didn't have some books in stock. Next time, I will just wait for IST to get them back in stock because they actually give a crap about their packaging.

[Balakin]

Regarding my Forbiddentplanet.com order: placed it on the 9th of June and it's still haven't shipped. I mean, 8 days to process the order? Is it still normal?

[Iron Fist]

Regarding my Forbiddentplanet.com order: placed it on the 9th of June and it's still haven't shipped. I mean, 8 days to process the order? Is it still normal?

Is everything you ordered in stock and not a pre-order?

[Balakin]

Is everything you ordered in stock and not a pre-order?

I've ordered one book (Crusades hc from Humanoids) and it is still in stock and when I check my order on the website it says "These products are ready to be charged and shipped."

[Iron Fist]

I've ordered one book (Crusades hc from Humanoids) and it is still in stock and when I check my order on the website it says "These products are ready to be charged and shipped."

That's odd then. Maybe send them an email?

It might be possible they've already sent it but failed to update their system to show it as dispatched, i've had that happen to me before with forbidden planet.

[Balakin]

That's odd then. Maybe send them an email?

It might be possible they've already sent it but failed to update their system to show it as dispatched, i've had that happen to me before with forbidden planet.

emailed them and they replied in 5 minutes. That's the only positive cause they told me that "oh sorry we thought we have the book but we don't...oops".
Shame, I was really looking forward to reading this and for 22 pounds it was a nice deal, since it's oop. Oh well...

[Balakin]

So far had no problem with Paperbackshop UK but today's delivery was a bit weird. Ordered 2 books in one order but they packaged them separately. One of them was in a carboard, wrapped around the book and put into a bubblewrap envelope. The other, an even thicker hardcover was just simply put into a bubblewrap envelope (both standard hc but thick paper, pagecount is like 240-340).
Just one or two minor dings, probably because it came via Yodel, but expected a bit better from them.

[vrqdcq]

I've read through a substantial amount of this thread, and felt compelled to register to let you guys in on the fact that most book sellers on Amazon do not have any inventory or distribution contacts, they are just individuals that open a seller account and use software that simply catalogs and lists other sellers' inventory in better condition at a higher price, then when you make the purchase from them, the same software then automatically places an order with another seller (who might be doing the same thing themselves) and has them drop ship their lesser copy to you instead, hoping you'll just "oh well" the situation and accept it as is, or take a partial refund. This scam is RAMPANT on Amazon.

Basically, the seller list's a book as "new", you subsequently make the purchase, and their software then proceeds to place an order from another seller selling it as "very good" or "ex library" and have them send it to you, pocketing the difference. Most of the sellers I've seen mentioned ("Total books" , "daily deals" , "books_any" , "World of Books Ltd" , "bookoutlet2USA" etc.) are all doing this under various accounts. The only legit sellers, (only in that they will order it direct from their distributor and send it to you themselves, they have next to nothing in actual inventory) are "Wordery", "Speedy Hen" and "Book Depository". These sellers are the exception to the rule here, but they will lie to you in regard to availability, and then sometimes cancel your order out of the blue, leaving you in a bind.

Never accept anything other than a full refund when you inevitably receive the usual damaged/ex-library piece of junk, and don't be afraid to quickly file an A-Z claim, it's easy and you WILL get your refund. Just be sure to leave these pricks negative feedback to warn others of this scam. You are much better off buying from ebay or paying more at your LCS if you can't get it from any of the usual retailers online. If you feel like you have no choice but to order from one of them, take the time to look through multiple pages of their feedback and even do a web search of the sellers name, you'll be surprised at what you find more often than not. Please share this information as far and wide as you can to save as many people as possible the trouble of dealing with these scammers.

[Balakin]

I've read through a substantial amount of this thread, and felt compelled to register to let you guys in on the fact that most book sellers on Amazon do not have any inventory or distribution contacts, they are just individuals that open a seller account and use software that simply catalogs and lists other sellers' inventory in better condition at a higher price, then when you make the purchase from them, the same software then automatically places an order with another seller (who might be doing the same thing themselves) and has them drop ship their lesser copy to you instead, hoping you'll just "oh well" the situation and accept it as is, or take a partial refund. This scam is RAMPANT on Amazon.

Basically, the seller list's a book as "new", you subsequently make the purchase, and their software then proceeds to place an order from another seller selling it as "very good" or "ex library" and have them send it to you, pocketing the difference. Most of the sellers I've seen mentioned ("Total books" , "daily deals" , "books_any" , "World of Books Ltd" , "bookoutlet2USA" etc.) are all doing this under various accounts. The only legit sellers, (only in that they will order it direct from their distributor and send it to you themselves, they have next to nothing in actual inventory) are "Wordery", "Speedy Hen" and "Book Depository". These sellers are the exception to the rule here, but they will lie to you in regard to availability, and then sometimes cancel your order out of the blue, leaving you in a bind.

Never accept anything other than a full refund when you inevitably receive the usual damaged/ex-library piece of junk, and don't be afraid to quickly file an A-Z claim, it's easy and you WILL get your refund. Just be sure to leave these pricks negative feedback to warn others of this scam. You are much better off buying from ebay or paying more at your LCS if you can't get it from any of the usual retailers online. If you feel like you have no choice but to order from one of them, take the time to look through multiple pages of their feedback and even do a web search of the sellers name, you'll be surprised at what you find more often than not. Please share this information as far and wide as you can to save as many people as possible the trouble of dealing with these scammers.

I never heard problems with books_any regarding the quality. Their packiging is sometimes weak, but that can be said about speedyhen too and the shipping time can be a month sometimes, but AFAIK they are OK.
I would add Paperbackshop UK and US to the legit seller list, never head any problems with them (always shipped a new book and usually the packaging is at least acceptable).

[wolpherine]

I won an auction yesterday for a Nova Vol. 6 tpb. I was ecstatic since the final price was <$30, which is ~$70 less than what I've normally seen it go for. This morning I got an email saying my money had been refunded. The seller attached a note saying "Sorry I cant sell for that cheap. all apologies." Now I'll have to look every day for another 6 months to find one.

Needless to say, I was extremely pissed. Negative feedback was given and curses were mumbled.